(TRAVEL NEWS) - SPRING HOLIDAY By John & Mallise Crawford

 

The last part of April John and Mallise Crawford flew to Brussels to join Grand Circle’s Holland & Belgium in Springtime Tour by land and riverboat from Brussels to Amsterdam. We enjoyed taking the optional 3 days in Bruges - What a beautiful, old city -- then boarded the riverboat for the cruise on to Holland. One nice thing about visiting Holland was that they still remember World War II and the sacrifices the Allies made there. After arriving back in Homosassa, FL the middle of May, and resting almost a whole week, John was ready to “head north to Alaska”. 1-75 beckoned - and we “set to”. Our first major stop was a visit to Mackinaw Island - how quaint and pretty - then the next big stop was the Glacier National Park--Oh, how beautiful - one day they cleared the Park road through the mountains, and we drove through - The breathtaking scenes and passes - What an experience for Mallise - all that SNOW!!!! Then on through Canada - the Edmondton Mall, largest in the world, Hot Springs at Laird, on to Dawson Creek where the road gave out ! ! !---you had to rejoin the highway across the wide and rapid river by ferry...! ! ! .then over the Top of the World Highway passed Chicken and on to TOK to wash the motor home.. .boy, that Glacier Dust is like clay... .At Fairbanks we took a beautiful riverboat tour - then left for the drive to Valdez - Oh, the snow covered mountains, and wild animals on the roadside - it’s indescribable...but not as indescribable as Mallise’s experience having to take the tow car in and out of the BIG SHIP for the ferry ride to Skagway....or as scary as when she got out of the motor home to run back and take a picture of a moose on the roadside... .A local car stopped her and asked, “Where are you from” - and said, “Don’t EVER go near a moose to take a picture - she’ll protect her calf and she is DEADLY.” As she was running back to the motor home, she could hear John calling from the window, “Run, Mallise, Run”!!! We saw two herds of buffalo on the shoulder of the road, all kinds of sheep and we desperately looked for a bear--just as we were leaving Alaska -- WE SAW A BIG BLACK ONE.. But you can bet we took pictures from the window. But, two broken windshields later we arrived back home safe and sound... but I still hear in my sleep.. ..“RUN, MALLISE, RUN”